WIP Challenge: Day 4 Check-in Post!

[gramarye1971]

Picking up this week of check-in posts, let's start with a poll!

Poll #12006 Day 4 Check-in

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 10

View Respondents

Today, I was able to --

View Answers

Write
5 (50.0%)

Edit
4 (40.0%)

Research
3 (30.0%)

Send to beta
1 (10.0%)

Daydream
2 (20.0%)

Take a break
1 (10.0%)

Do something else that I will describe in the comments
0 (0.0%)

My progress on my goals so far has been...

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Excellent
1 (10.0%)

Very good
2 (20.0%)

Reasonable
5 (50.0%)

Middling
1 (10.0%)

Not worth talking about
1 (10.0%)

Today's discussion question is about writing exchanges and challenges, from NaNoWriMo to Yuletide and other holiday exchanges to others that focus on specific series, ships, characters, or even kinks. Some people adore them, some people can't stand them, but they're responsible for some interesting works. How do you feel about writing for an exchange or a challenge? Do you prefer one kind over another? Have you ever been stuck with an assignment that made you want to run screaming?

Comments

[sperrywink]

Challenges like Yuletide are my own form of crack. I love them. I always say I am going to take a break and not join a new one, but that never lasts more than a month. Holiday season is the worst. One year I had 5 holiday challenges to do.

I have gotten many an assignment that made me go WTF. Such is the challenge.

[linaewen]

My writing today was really just a general writeup of how things will go in one of my stories, with a lot of incomplete sentences, but it's more writing than the usual outline, so I'm calling it writing. ;-) It's good progress for the particular story I'm working on, anyway.

I really enjoy writing for challenges and exchanges. It's kind of a new thing for me, but I like the challenge of coming up with something that fits my tastes in writing yet also matches the assignment. I think I prefer challenges over exchanges because there is just a bit more leeway with the elements or prompts and less stress because you don't have to worry about your recipient liking it or not, but both are fun. They provide a nice change from slogging through my long-term WIPs, and actually help keep me writing when I get bogged down in the longer works.

[barbayat]

Did nothing but edit one fanfic lately (mostly because I had a guest to entertain) but I am very happy with how far I have gotten. It is an older fanfic and I am discovering lots of mistakes. Some grammar, some spelling and a great deal also plot. There are certain things that do require more exposition, better pacing and more reasonable conclusion to make everything fit better together.

Still suffering from writer's block for my main fanfic - but I guess it will come in time.

[dragonbat2006]

I enjoy tossing my hat in the ring for auctions (like fandomaid over on livejournal). I look at it as a chance to write for fandoms that I normally wouldn't. Haven't had assignments that made me run screaming, but one person asked for a Narnia/Secret Garden Crossover, which knocked me for a loop until I could find a good intersection point for the canons. Someone else wanted a Batman/Muppet Show crossover. The hard part with that was finding a believable way for Comics!Batman (i.e. not Adam West) to sing and dance...